The present invention relates to a rack for a storage battery, in particular (but not exclusively) for high-capacity storage batteries (several hundreds of ampere-hours) which are consequently relatively heavy.
Available racks for such a battery have existed for a long time; one such consists mainly of two walls with their ends connected together by longerons to which the storage cells are fastened. The cells are fastened by knobs fixed on the storage cells which are engaged in cavities formed in the longerons. Since the MONAHAN frame (U.S. Pat. No. 1,304,588) which was entirely made of wood, embodiments have been proposed which include metal frames for reinforcing the rack, as in French Pat. No. 1,407,408 and its addition Pat. No. 91,387, or else the wood has been replaced by plastic material as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,623,917.
Difficulties entailed with the known construction are of two kinds: mechanical and electrical. Mechanically, it is required to have an assembly which can be dragged along the ground if necessary without being damaged and which can even be dropped in some circumstances without detriment to the storage cells or destruction of the rack. Electrically, the metal frames must not form a leakage path towards the ground from the containers of the storage cells, even in the presence of possible leakages of electrolyte which would provide short circuits between the containers and the frames.
Only partial solutions have been found for these problems in known racks: Wooden skids are relatively insulative, but are not very shock-proof because of their insufficient elasticity. Plastic materials are relatively expensive and do not always have the required strength.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention make it possible to mitigate these disadvantages and to provide satisfactory solutions to the mechanical and electrical problems set forth hereinabove.
The present invention provides a storage cell rack comprising a pair of insulative end plates interconnected by at least two insulative longerons, the longerons being fastened to the end plates and being provided with storage cell supporting hollows or holes capable of receiving studs or like projections secured to the cell casings, the assembly of end plates and longerons being carried on a stand comprising two metal bars extending parallel to the longerons, each bar having its opposite ends upturned to constitute uprights which are fastened to respective ones of the end plates.
In this way, the metal bars provide elasticity which enables the assembled rack to absorb shock when dropped. Also since they are fastened to the insulative end plates, they are electrically insulated from the casings of each storage cell.
In an advantageous embodiment the metal bars are in the form of flat strips whose width extends in a plane perpendicular to that of longerons. Their portions between uprights thus constitute a pair of skids for the rack reducing the effort required for moving the battery.